Duke Blue Devils
The Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team is the college basketball program representing Duke University and one of the premier teams in the nation. The Blue Devils are widely renowned in American college sports. As the fourth-winningest men's basketball program of all-time1, the team from Duke University has had great success over the past 30 years under coach Mike Krzyzewski. Duke plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference in NCAA Division I. Duke has won 4 NCAA championships and appeared in 15 Final Fours. Eleven players have been named the National Player of the Year, while 71 players have been drafted in the NBA Draft. In the 2008–2009 NBA season, Duke had more former players on NBA rosters than any other school.2 Additionally, Duke has had 55 All-Americans and 14 Academic All-Americans. Duke has won the most Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships with 18. Duke has also won the regular season 19 times.3 Duke won Southern Conference championships five times. Duke finished the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll seven times. Duke is second, behind only UCLA, in total weeks ranked as the number one team in the nation by the AP with 110 weeks.4 The Blue Devils have the second longest streak in the AP Top 25 in history with 200 consecutive appearances from 1996 to 2007, trailing only UCLA's 221 consecutive polls from 1966–1980.5 Players awards National Players of the Year *Dick Groat (1952) *Art Heyman (1963) AP, UPI, U.S. Basketball Writers *Johnny Dawkins (1986) Naismith *Danny Ferry (1989) Naismith, UPI, U.S. Basketball Writers *Christian Laettner (1992) AP, Basketball Times, NABC, Naismith, U.S. Basketball Writers, Wooden *Elton Brand (1999) AP, NABC, Naismith, U.S. Basketball Writers, Wooden, The Sporting News *Shane Battier (2001) AP, Basketball Times, Naismith, U.S. Basketball Writers, Wooden, The Sporting News *Jason Williams (2001) NABC, and (2002) AP, Basketball Times, NABC, Naismith, U.S. Basketball Writers, Wooden, The Sporting News *J. J. Redick (2005) Rupp, and (2006) AP, Basketball Times, NABC, Naismith, Rupp, U.S. Basketball Writers, Wooden, The Sporting News ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year *Art Heyman (1963) *Jeff Mullins (1964) *Steve Vacendak (1966) *Mike Gminski (1979) *Danny Ferry (1988, 1989) *Christian Laettner (1992) *Grant Hill (1994) *Elton Brand (1999) *Chris Carrawell (2000) *Shane Battier (2001) *J. J. Redick (2005, 2006) ACC Rookies of the Year *Jim Spanarkel (1976) *Mike Gminski (1977) *Gene Banks (1978) *Chris Duhon (2001) *Kyle Singler (2008) National Defensive Player of the Year *Billy King (1986) *Tommy Amaker (1987) *Grant Hill (1993) *Steve Wojciechowski (1998) *Shane Battier (1999, 2000, 2001) *Shelden Williams (2005, 2006) ACC Defensive Player of the Year (since 2005) *Shelden Williams (2005, 2006) *DeMarcus Nelson (2008) Retired Jerseys Duke has retired 13 jerseys, listed to the side. To be eligible to receive this honor at Duke, a player must graduate from Duke University and also be recognized at the national level (such as be named National Player of the Year or Defensive Player of the Year, set an NCAA record, or be named as an All-American). Team history Adapted from Duke University Archives7 In 1906, Wilbur Wade Card, Trinity College's Athletic Director and a member of the Class of 1900, introduced the game of basketball to Trinity. The January 30 issue of The Trinity Chronicle headlined the new sport on its front page. Trinity's first game ended in a loss to Wake Forest, 24–10. The game was played in the Angier B. Duke Gymnasium, later known as The Ark. The Trinity team won its first title in 1920, the state championship, by beating the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (now NC State) 25 to 24. Earlier in the season they had beaten the University of North Carolina 19–18 in the first match-up between the two schools. Trinity college then became Duke University. Bill Werber, Class of 1930, became Duke's first All-American in basketball. The Gothic-style West Campus opened that year, with a new gym, later to be named for Coach Card. The Indoor Stadium opened in 1940. Initially it was referred to as an "Addition" to the gymnasium. Part of its cost was paid for with the proceeds from the Duke football team's appearance in the 1938 Rose Bowl. In 1972 it would be named for Eddie Cameron, head coach from 1929 to 1942. In 1952, Dick Groat became the first Duke player to be named National Player of the Year. Duke left the Southern Conference to become a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953. The Duke team under Vic Bubas made its first appearance in the Final Four in 1963, losing 74–71 to Loyola in the semifinal. The next year, Bubas' team reached the national title game, losing to the Bruins of UCLA, who claimed 10 titles in the next 12 years. In August 1972, the NCAA hit Duke with a one-year postseason ban.8 The basketball program won it's 1000th game in 1974, making Duke only the eighth school in NCAA history to reach that figure. In a turnaround, Coach Bill Foster's 1978 Blue Devils, who had gone 2–10 in the ACC the previous year, won the conference tournament and went on to the NCAA championship game, where they fell to Kentucky. Mike Gminski ('80) and Jim Spanarkel ('79) ran the floor. Mike Krzyzewski era = :*4 National Championships (most since 1984–85) as well as two in a row in 1991 and '92, also winning in 2001 and 2010 :*11 Final Fours (most since 1984–85) as well as five in a row from 1988 to 1992 :*19 Sweet Sixteens (most since 1984–85) and nine straight from 1998–2006 :*26 NCAA tournament berths :*77 NCAA tournament wins (most ever) :*11 No. 1 seeds :*24 conference titles (12 regular season, 12 tournament), 9 of last 12 ACC Tournament Titles :*11 30-win seasons :*25 20-win seasons :*Number 1 AP ranking in 14 of the past 25 seasons :*7 players named Naismith College Player of the Year :*6 players named National Defensive Players of the Year :*26 AP All-Americans :*14 consensus first team All-Americans :*10 NBA top-10 picks: T-1st9 Krzyzewski's teams made the Final Four in 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004 and 2010. During his 30 years as the Duke head coach, Coach K has had only five classes which did not play in a Final Four: 1984, 1985, 1998, 2008 and 2009. Duke upset the heavily favored UNLV Runnin' Rebels 79–77 in the Final Four in 1991, a rematch of the 1990 final. The team, led by Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, and Thomas Hill went on to defeat Kansas 72–65 to win the university's first NCAA Championship. Ranked #1 all season and favored to repeat as national champions in 1992, Duke took part in a game "acclaimed by many as the greatest college basketball game ever played," according to ESPN.10111213 In the Elite Eight, Duke met the Rick Pitino-led Kentucky Wildcats. It appeared Kentucky had sealed the win in overtime when guard Sean Woods hit a running shot off the glass in the lane to put Kentucky up by one with 2.1 seconds left on the clock. After a timeout, Duke's Grant Hill threw a full-court pass to Christian Laettner. Laettner took a dribble and nailed a turn-around jumper at the buzzer to send Duke into the Final Four with a 104–103 victory. To the Duke faithful, this play will forever be known as "The Shot." The shot was named the most memorable basketball shot of all-time (including the NBA, college, and high school) by the Best Damn Sports Show Period in 200714 and the fifth most unforgettable sports moment of all-time across all sports in 2006.15 Duke went on to defeat the Sixth-seeded Michigan 71–51 to claim its second NCAA Championship. Duke defeated Arizona 82–72 to win its third NCAA Championship in 2001, becoming one of a handful of teams in NCAA Tournament history to defeat all of their tournament opponents by double digits. Krzyzewski was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame later that year. On April 5, 2010 Duke Men's Basketball won their fourth NCAA Championship by defeating Butler 61–59. Former Duke stars such as Alaa Abdelnaby, Johnny Dawkins, Cherokee Parks, Bobby Hurley, Antonio Lang, Roshown McLeod, William Avery, Trajan Langdon, Grant Hill, Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, Brian Davis, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon, Mike Dunleavy, Dahntay Jones, Daniel Ewing, J.J. Redick, Shelden Williams, Corey Maggette, Luol Deng, Josh McRoberts and Jason Williams have gone on to play in the NBA. Many of Krzyzewski's assistants and former players, such as Bob Bender, Mike Brey, Tommy Amaker, Quin Snyder, Jeff Capel, and Johnny Dawkins have become head basketball coaches at major universities. n NCAA Tournament seeding history The NCAA began seeding the tournament with the 1979 edition. Championships Cameron Indoor Stadium Cameron Indoor Stadium was completed on January 6, 1940, having cost $400,000. At the time, it was the largest gymnasium in the country south of the Palestra at the University of Pennsylvania. Originally called Duke Indoor Stadium, it was renamed for Coach Cameron on January 22, 1972.16 The building originally included seating for 8,800, though standing room was sufficient to ensure that 12,000 could fit in on a particularly busy day. Then, as now, Duke students were allowed a large chunk of the seats, including those directly alongside the court. Renovations in 1987–1988 removed the standing room areas and added seats, bringing capacity to 9,314. Duke's men's basketball teams have had a decided home-court advantage for many years, thanks to the diehard students known as the Cameron Crazies. The hardwood floor has been dedicated and renamed Coach K Court in honor of head coach Mike Krzyzewski, and the tent city outside Cameron where students camp out before big games is what is known as Krzyzewskiville. In 1999, Sports Illustrated ranked Cameron the fourth best venue in all of professional and college sports,17 and USA Today referred to it as "the toughest road game in the nation".18 Today, it continues to be one of the toughest arenas to play in, evidenced by Duke's 48-2 home court record in the last three years. Current roster Season by season results Krzyzewskiville, or K-ville for short, is a phenomenon that occurs before major men's basketball games at Duke University. In simplest terms, it is the line for students wishing to gain access to the designated tenting games. It is often mistakenly referred to as a ticket line. However, there are no student tickets; students are admitted from the line an hour and a half before each game. Krzyzewskiville is named for Mike Krzyzewski, often called "Coach K", the much loved coach who has helped make Duke's basketball program one of the best in the nation. He has been known to buy pizza for the K-ville residents from time to time and has held open-forum "team meetings" with the Cameron Crazies before games against their arch-rival, the North Carolina Tar Heels. The First K-ville While lining up hours before games (the UNC game in particular) had always been a regular practice, every now and then a group of students would be ambitious enough to get their sleeping bags out and sleep in line the night before in order to ensure their front row seats. In 1986 Kimberly Reed, a resident of the Mirecourt selective living group, took the practice one step further and decided with a group of her Mirecourt friends to line up even earlier for the UNC game and sleep in tents.1 Showing up on Thursday for the Saturday tip-off, the fifteen friends set up four tents and prepared to sleep outside of Cameron Indoor. They were quickly noticed by the rest of the student body, and by game time there were 75 tents in line to see Duke battle their long-standing rival UNC. The NBC news crew put them on the evening news, and they made the front page of USA Today. Their dedication was rewarded with a 85-72 Duke victory, and tenting in K-ville would be forever immortalized as a Duke University tradition. K-ville rules The number of tenting games in a single season is determined by the Line Monitor Committee of the Duke Student Government. The UNC game is always a tenting game but potentially there may be a second game where tent order determines seating. Months before the actual game, students begin to put up and live in tents outside Cameron Indoor Stadium. As many as twelve people can occupy a specific tent group (a tent group may contain up to two physical tents). As regulated by Duke Student Government,2 there must be a certain number of students in the tent at regular, periodic checks. From the beginning of tenting in early January (although the first tents usually appear between Christmas and New Year's Day) until one week before the game, tents generally must have 1 person in the tent during the day and 6 people each night. From approximately two weeks before the game, only two people must be in the tent each night. The two weekend nights prior to the game are personal check nights, during which each of the twelve tent members must be at the tent for 3 of 5 personal checks spread over the two nights. If a tent misses a tent check twice, it gets moved to the end of the line (assuming availability). If K-ville is at full capacity (100 tents) and a waitlist exists at the time of the second miss, the tent gets removed completely. Tenters that lose their spot or non-tenters can, however, take their chances at the walk-up line, which forms 48 hours before tipoff. The walk-up line consists of couples, and one member of each couple must be in line at all times. People in the walk-up line are not guaranteed to get into the game; people who have waited more than 24 hours sometimes do not get in. Tents must register with the line monitors (students in charge of overseeing and enforcing K-ville rules and regulations) prior to setting up. There are three types: "Black" registration, which is the longest and most intense option in which tenting starts a week early and the use of actual tents is forbidden, in addition to this all 12 tenters must sleep in the tent during black tenting; "Blue" registration, in which a tent can register at any time before approximately two weeks prior to the game; after this, "White" registration goes into effect, which is significantly more complicated. For "Blue" registration, a tent group need only give their names to the line monitors and start tenting. However, for "White" registration, students must meet the line monitors at a location on campus that is disclosed on a website at a specified time; this results in a hectic dash to the location once it is made public. Most tenting groups station members around campus, one of whom is called when the location is disclosed online. Hundreds of tent representatives usually appear at the White registration location for the 40 or so spots not taken by "Blue" tenters, with the spots filling up in a matter of minutes. K-ville is also a social function at Duke, as many students participate at least once; it gives students a chance to mix with those not in their own dorms or classes. Duke has installed Wi-Fi service and Ethernet ports in the lightposts so that students can participate in tenting without falling behind in their schoolwork, although the internet is known to be very unreliable. Students also complain that the cold weather also prevents them from getting any real work done. Heaters are not permitted in K-ville; students must keep warm by simply using sleeping bags and dressing appropriately. Robertson Scholars In December 2006, the Duke Student Government banned Robertson Scholars from UNC (who attend Duke for one semester) from participating in tenting for the game versus UNC, although they can still get in via the walk-up line.3 Some feel this is a violation of the Robertson Scholars Program, which states that "they have full student privileges at both Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. This includes access to courses; faculty and research opportunities; and arts, cultural, and sporting events."4 That tenting season, some Robertsons tented with some full time Duke students, using their Duke ID cards to get into the game. However, once inside the student section the Robertson attendees removed Duke attire worn into the game to reveal UNC paraphernalia. To prevent this situation from happening again, Robertson Scholars visiting from UNC were banned from tenting in K-ville, starting in 2006. External Links *Official athletics site Category:NCAA Division I schools Category:Atlantic Coast Conference members Category:Schools in North Carolina Category:2010 NCAA Tournament Category:2004 NCAA Tournament